I fell into writing about health shortly after grad school, where I realized I didn't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life! My areas of interest are the brain and behavior, as well as what influences the decisions we make about our health, and how the media helps and hinders people's understanding of health issues. As an undergraduate, I studied English Literature and Biopsychology at Vassar College, and got my PhD in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at CUNY's Graduate Center in New York City, where I grew up and live now. My day job is as Associate Editor with the health website, TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com. My work has appeared in several other publications, including TheAtlantic.com and YogaGlo.com, and I'm particularly excited to join the Forbes health team. Email me at alicegwalton [at] gmail [dot] com .

Can The Media Help Shift Our Beauty Ideals Back In A Healthy Direction?

There’s more and more evidence that concepts like “beautiful” and “sexy” are not hard-wired into the brain, but are malleable, depending on the images we’re surrounded with every day. Sure, there are some physical attributes that are fairly constant around the globe, like facial symmetry and a healthy head of hair. But when it comes to body type, we’re surprisingly influenced by the images we see every day – and, according to a new study, if the images change, we’ll fairly quickly shift our preferences to correspond.

The magazine industry has come under fire in recent years for using too-thin models and for photoshopping them beyond all semblance of reality. In response to public insistence, some magazines have quit using models who are “too thin” or too young, and cut back on digitally altering them. And this may actually have an affect on what we find attractive, according to the new research.

The researchers, from Durham University in Great Britain, wondered whether our preference for thinness these days is because we associate thinness with health or socioeconomic status, or because we’re simply fed a steady diet of it – even extreme and unhealthy examples of thinness – by the media.

To answer this question, the team looked at how young women’s preferences for various body types were affected by images they were shown in the lab. The images included women of varying body mass index (BMI) who were either “aspirational” – for example, plus-size models or beauty queens who looked happy and healthy – or plain women, verging on “unappealing” (women who were significantly overweight or underweight dressed simply, in grey leotards).

Interestingly, after the participants viewed pictures of very thin or overweight women, their tastes shifted accordingly – so women who viewed pictures of overweight women shifted their preference toward the heavier body type over the course of the study. Oddly, this was true whether the women in the pictures were “aspirational” or plain/unappealing.

“Importantly, we found these changes whether we used typical media images (models and beauty queens) or relatively unappealing images of women with very high or very low body weight,” said study author Lynda Boothroyd. “There have been recent campaigns against anorexia featuring images of very emaciated sufferers; however, our research suggests that such images would only increase, not decrease, a preference for thinness. They are not enough on their own to counteract the thin ideal.”

This is a disturbing thought – that even the images we see which are designed to warn us about the dangers of anorexia might actually work to increase to our preference for thinness, just because they’re part of our “visual diet.” Boothroyd added that based on her results, “it seems that even so-called ‘cautionary’ images against anorexia might still increase our liking for thinner bodies, such as those featuring the late French model Isabelle Caro, which is a sobering thought.”

If the media shifted what they’re “feeding” us, in the way of body type, which they’ve started to do in small ways, how long it would take to have an effect on what we find attractive? If the current study is any indication, it might not be too long. “Although we don’t yet know whether brief exposure to pictures of larger women will change women’s attitudes in the long term,” said Boothroyd, “our findings certainly indicate that showing more ‘normal’ models could potentially reduce women’s obsession for thinness.”

The question then is what is “normal,” and whether using more plus-size models is really the answer, as some have suggested. They may represent the norm among Western women these days, but it seems like using overweight women in ads or campaigns might be swinging too much in the opposite direction. It’s important that the images we see be a reflection of health, not simply the average body type. In this way, campaigns that promote ideas like “strong is the new skinny,” like this one, might be a really helpful tool in swaying our opinions of what’s hot. Hopefully other forms of media – from runway to magazine – will follow suit.

What are your thoughts? Do the media have a responsibility to help shape what we think of as beautiful, sexy, or healthy?

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

I think the only company I’ve seen really address this is Dove! They have really taken to educating females about self esteem and worth as it relates to the body. You will have individual actresses like Christina Hendricks come out and challenge the “norm” but the industry and media as a whole won’t because that could/will adversely affect their bottom line. As usual I think it’s up to us as women to educate ourselves and children (male and female) that just because your body doesn’t look like the Victoria Secret models’, that doesn’t mean you are less than…I don’t know how many generations it will take but it will not be in my lifetime.

This is an interplay which is centuries old, and documented by art historian Anne Hollander in her 1975 book, _Seeing Through Clothes_ (ISBN 0-520-08231-1). She documents how art, ranging from Greek pottery and sculpture through modern media, both reflects and influences our ideals of beauty and how we see ourselves in relation to contemporary aesthetic standards.

why does “the media” care so much? why can’t they just leave women alone and stop for ONE MINUTE, attempting to manipulate our thoughts? it’s a wonder no one has dropped your magazines and articles altogether, your writers lose credibility with us when all they think about is making a buck off of sheer manipulative energy.

It is interesting to think about how companies that sell sugary, carb filled foods (soda, chips, etc) also warp body image in our minds. They use thin, healthy body images in ads to make us think those products are unassociated with being overweight.